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Millions of Workers Have Energy Limiting Conditions. Why Aren’t We Designing for Them?

A blurry image of a group of workers in a meeting behind a screen

A talk to the British Assistive Technology Association highlights how millions of people with energy limiting conditions remain overlooked in workplace design — and why this represents a major opportunity for assistive technology and ergonomic innovation.

Recently I was invited to speak to members of the British Assistive Technology Association (BATA) at an event hosted by TechUK about energy limiting conditions (ELCs) and what they mean for the future of assistive technology and workplace design. (If you haven’t come across this term before here’s my explainer on ELCs.)

The central argument I wanted to make was simple: focusing on energy limiting conditions highlights both a significant unmet need and a major untapped opportunity.

Millions of disabled people experience work-limiting fatigue and restricted energy. Yet their needs are rarely reflected in the way workplaces, technologies and ergonomic solutions are designed.

For the assistive technology sector, that gap represents not just a challenge for accessibility, but also a space for innovation.

A large but invisible population

The term energy limiting condition is not yet widely used in policy or workplace inclusion. It emerged through work with people living with chronic illness to describe a shared experience: limited and easily depleted energy that constrains how much activity a person can sustain.

Many long-term health conditions fall into this category. ME/CFS, Long Covid and fibromyalgia are the most obvious ones. But conditions as wide ranging as multiple sclerosis, rheumatoid, COPD and cancer (especially the effects of chemotherapy) come under this umbrella, and fatigue is common in mental health and neurdivergent conditions too.

Although these conditions have very different medical causes, research with patients consistently shows that fatigue or energy limitation is often the symptom with the greatest impact on everyday life and employment.

Within social policy, however, physical health conditions tend to be grouped according to medical systems — neurological, musculoskeletal, respiratory and so on — rather than by their functional impact.

The result is that people with ELCs are dispersed across diagnostic categories rather than recognised as a group with shared access needs.

Yet the numbers are significant. In the UK, government data shows that around one in three disabled people report impairment of stamina, breathing or fatigue — roughly 4.7 million working-age people.

This is not a niche population.

But because it is fragmented across diagnoses, its needs are rarely considered systematically in workplace design or assistive technology development.

When energy is the limiting factor

Energy limiting conditions often challenge traditional assumptions about disability and work.

Many people with ELCs can perform complex tasks — sometimes to a very high level — but only within strict limits on how long activity can be sustained.

Work capacity may be shaped by:

  • a reduced “energy envelope” each day
  • the need for regular and sometimes extended rest breaks
  • cognitive fatigue affecting concentration and information processing
  • fluctuating symptoms that make capacity unpredictable

These patterns are increasingly common, particularly with the rise of post-viral conditions such as Long Covid.

But most forms of disability assessment and assistive technologies are still designed around a model of disability based on fixed and stable impairments, rather than fluctuating and energy-limited capacity.

This mismatch creates barriers — but it also points to areas where new solutions could make a real difference.

Designing workplaces around energy

One striking feature of accessibility design is how rarely energy conservation and rest are treated as a design principle.

The world of assistive technology, aids and adaptations has traditionally focused on addressing specific functional barriers — mobility limitations, sensory impairments or neurodivergence.

But for people with ELCs, the central issue is often how to perform tasks using less physical or cognitive energy.

If energy becomes the design focus, different questions emerge:

  • How can workplaces reduce postural and orthostatic strain and energy expenditure?
  • How can technology minimise cognitive load?
  • How can tools support pacing and energy management across the day?

Thinking about accessibility through the lens of energy impairment opens up a range of design opportunities.

Two examples stand out in particular.

Ergonomic design rarely considers fatigue

Consider ergonomic seating.

Most office chairs and workstations have been designed around one dominant goal: supporting upright posture to prevent back pain and musculoskeletal injury.

Features such as lumbar support, adjustable seat height and upright positioning dominate the ergonomic market.

But for many people with energy limiting conditions, maintaining an upright posture itself requires significant energy.

Conditions such as orthostatic intolerance — commonly associated with ME/CFS and Long Covid — mean that sitting upright for extended periods can reduce cognitive function and exacerbate fatigue.

Yet there are surprisingly few workstation solutions designed to support productive work in a reclined or semi-reclined position.

Highly specialised “zero gravity” workstations do exist, but these are typically designed for spinal injuries and can cost several thousand pounds.

At the other end of the market, many mainstream office chairs do recline — sometimes quite significantly — but this functionality is generally marketed as a way for busy executives to take a brief rest between tasks.

Key information such as recline angle is often buried in product specifications, making it difficult for users to identify chairs that might meet their needs.

More importantly, these chairs are not designed for sustained work while reclined. They do not include integrated solutions for positioning screens and keyboards so that someone can work comfortably while leaning back.

Given the scale of the population affected by fatigue and orthostatic intolerance, this feels like an obvious gap.

A new generation of energy-aware workstations — supporting reclined working positions and reducing postural energy demands — could significantly expand workplace accessibility.

Assistive technology for cognitive fatigue

Assistive technology offers another promising area for innovation.

Many people with energy limiting conditions experience cognitive fatigue — difficulty sustaining concentration, processing information, organising tasks and making decisions as mental effort accumulates.

Some existing assistive technologies already offer potential support.

Tools such as:

  • text-to-speech software
  • speech-to-text tools
  • mind-mapping software
  • digital planning and task-management systems

can help reduce cognitive effort and extend the amount of productive time someone can sustain.

In practice, people with ELCs often discover and adapt these tools themselves. But they are rarely designed or marketed explicitly for users experiencing cognitive fatigue.

That suggests another opportunity for the assistive technology sector.

In many cases, it may not require entirely new products. Instead, relatively small design changes — simplifying interfaces, reducing cognitive load, integrating platforms or reframing existing tools — could make technologies far more accessible to people whose main constraint is limited cognitive stamina.

Recognising cognitive fatigue as a legitimate accessibility issue could open up new possibilities for innovation.

From unmet need to innovation opportunity

The assistive technology sector has historically evolved around clearly defined disability categories.

But the growth of chronic illness and post-viral conditions means that energy impairment is becoming an increasingly important dimension of accessibility.

Recognising energy limiting conditions as a shared impairment category can help shift thinking in several ways.

First, it highlights a large and underserved population whose needs are not fully reflected either in policy or in product design.

Second, it encourages cross-condition innovation, focusing on common functional challenges rather than specific diagnoses.

And third, it invites designers, technologists and policymakers to think about accessibility in terms of energy as well as function.

Designing for the future workforce

Millions of people are already navigating work with limited and fluctuating energy.

Many are highly skilled professionals whose productivity depends not on overcoming a single barrier but on managing energy carefully across the day and week.

By paying closer attention to energy impairment — through ergonomic design, assistive technology and workplace innovation — we have the chance to unlock that potential.

Energy limiting conditions represent both a significant unmet need and a major opportunity for innovation.

Designing for energy does more than improve accessibility.

It expands what sustainable participation in work can look like for a growing part of the workforce.